BlitzLocal CEO Dennis Yu is speaking June 9-10 at The SES (Search Engine Strategies) Conference and Expo in Toronto. Here’s the rundown of the event — hope to see you there!
Facebook Feeding Frenzy: Targeting Opportunities, Privacy Challenges
Facebook and other social media platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn) offer tremendous new segmentation and ad targeting opportunities to marketers. Ahead-of-the-curve marketers are already researching segments, evaluating strategies, testing ad creative, and getting into the weeds measuring performance in this unprecedented targeting playground where interconnected users are willing to openly share their interests and content.
But is it all too easy for marketers because Facebook et al. are cavalier about privacy and disclosure? Is a user backlash or a regulatory firestorm on the horizon? Canada is notorious in that its Privacy Commissioner openly challenged Facebook on its default settings and disclosure. Which way will the wind be blowing in a year’s time? Panelists explore both the opportunistic and paranoid perspectives on social media marketing. Take your pick.
Moderator:
Andrew Goodman, SES Advisory Board & President, Page Zero Media
Speakers:
Mark Rosenberg, Of Counsel, Sills Cummis & Gross P.C.
Dennis Yu, Chief Executive Officer, BlitzLocal
(Editor’s note: this guest post is by Rory Mackay of Websitetips.com.au. It was geo-limited but has great ideas to inspire for other markets and projects. “Seeding” is the perfect metaphor — a concept sown into social media that sprouts all kinds of creative activity by fans and their friends.)
The My Kitchen Sucks campaign run by IKEA in Australia has set a cracking pace in the first two weeks. The brief that Thinq (digital agency) worked around was ‘Drive kitchen sales over a period of 2 months’. The target group was women who were in the market for a new kitchen. A restriction on the campaign was that the message should only be available in two Australian cities (franchise ruling).
What Thinq did was turn the tables on the campaign. They knew that buying a kitchen is not an instantaneous decision but they knew that they could influence that decision. Along the way they would pick up impulse shoppers, raise brand awareness and create buzz.
Brainstorming campaign ideas, it was decided instead of selling the virtues of IKEA kitchens that they would let IKEA kitchen buyers talk about themselves and their kitchens. Let them let it all hang out, the good the bad and the ugly. The problem was managing negative comments which are always a huge headache and worry for management, and this campaign had the potential to open IKEA to a lot of negativity.
The trick was to channel this negative feedback into something positive. What they came up with was a social competition that allowed people to show how bad their kitchen really is. The winner which would be voted upon would then win a new installed kitchen from IKEA. The clincher concept to the campaign was ‘don’t give people a chance to win, ask them to earn it’.
The voting mechanism setup was built along a points system which people earned as they shared their kitchen with their friends. As people share their terrible kitchen so they gathered points and the person with the most points wins a new installed kitchen. Points are earned for submissions that are shared across Twitter and Facebook.
Two weeks into the campaign:
Facebook has become the number one referrer site.
Customers have setup their own viral campaigns.
The campaign is currently earning $60,000 a week for IKEA.
Over 1,100 kitchens were submitted in the first week.
Thousands of tagged kitchen images pointing back to the competition.
The leading kitchen has received over 800 votes.
One of the great things about this campaign was the small budget. Beside production costs of the real estate only AU$4000 was spent in seeding the competition. This was done via two bought email lists, which received one blast each.
Some user generated viral things people are doing to earn their new kitchen are …
SEATTLE — Search marketing expert Dennis Yu will share results from some of BlitzLocal’s integrated Facebook and PPC campaigns for major brands at SMX Advanced 2010, June 8-9 in Seattle.
Yu, CEO of BlitzLocal, part of the conference’s Facebook panel, will share insights and experience building Facebook Pages and generating traffic for entertainment and consumer brands. He’ll offer some best-practices advice and share information on sending PPC traffic to Facebook Pages and Page traffic to sites.
BlitzLocal (www.blitzlocal.com) provides cutting-edge local search solutions to local, regional, national and international enterprises. It is developing an ad-serving platform that integrates pay-per-click (PPC), search optimization, mail, and Facebook advertising campaigns to online and offline conversions via phone, lead generation, online ordering, and coupon redemption.
A veteran of web analytics and PPC, Yu has helped Yahoo!, American Airlines, J.C. Penney and others maximize online leads and revenue. BlitzLocal manages Facebook Pages and advertising campaigns for major national and international brands.
SMX Advanced (www.searchmarketingexpo.com/advanced) focuses on techniques, topics and strategies for advanced search marketers. According to the website, “The most accomplished search marketers in the world will present cutting edge tips for driving traffic and increasing conversions from paid search advertising, SEO, social media marketing, search analytics and more.”
by Kody Wilcox
Remember when everyone warned you about the “Internet predators” that were out to get you? Since then, Facebook has stepped up and added some extra security features to your profiles. You have the ability to show or hide certain details on your profile from certain people or friend lists.
For instance, if I don’t want my boss, co-workers, or clients seeing that I am “Swimming when I should be working!”, I can now add them to a list labeled “Work Related” and hide my status updates from my “Work Related” friends.
From your home screen, type a status update and click the “padlock” icon beside the “Share” button. Then select “Custom”.
From the “Custom Privacy” screen, select which people/lists you want to be able to view your wall posts. Next, choose which people/lists you wish to hide your posts from.
Remember to “Make this your default setting” to make this setting permanent.
Facebook also has many other Privacy Settings. You can use the same Show/Hide feature on many other pieces of information on your profile. For instance, Profile information (birthday, religious views, etc.), Contact information (email addresses, phone numbers, etc.), Applications, and Search. Just go to your “Account” and select “Privacy Settings”.
You then can use the same Customization Tool to choose who can or can not view certain pieces of information on your profile.
Facebook also has a very useful tool for “Preview[ing] how your profile appears to a specific person.”
Under Profile Information, there is a “Preview my Profile” button that allows you to view your profile as if you were another person. You get to see how they view your profile from their screen. Cool huh?
By Default, the view is set to the public view. This is how your profile appears to someone who isn’t your friend. Notice the limited profile information. (some information is blurred for privacy)
For example purposes I view my profile as my boss Dennis, who is NOT listed in my “Work Related” list, therefore making my Wall posts visible to him.
Eric on the other hand who IS in my “Work Related” list can NOT view my Wall posts. Notice the lack of information he has compared to Dennis. He can view my contact information, unlike my public view can. Yet he doesn’t have access to my Wall.
Looks like I’m going to be in some trouble with Dennis! Thanks, Facebook, for the privacy options. Too bad there isn’t a “Travel Back in Time” button.
So you have a nice new Facebook Page for your business. But how can it make your cash register ring?
Here are a few steps to get started:
1. Place a Facebook “Become a Fan” button on your website, so your site visitors can find your Page.
2. Ask all of your Facebook friends, employees and family members to “Fan” your new business Page on Facebook. Post a link to your new page on your personal profile and ask your friends to post it on their profiles.
3. Tell your customers “Fan us on Facebook!” (Share news of your new page with your customer email list.)
4. Once you get 50 fans, ask Facebook for a “vanity” URL (or link to your page). Here’s why. When you first create your Facebook Page, its link is long and full of numbers and symbols. A “vanity URL” that looks something like this — www.facebook.com/mybizname — is much easier to share and remember.
5. Offer some generous coupons on your Page so your fans will be motivated to share them with their friends. Theis can generate traffic and new customers.
6. Consider advertising on Facebook. This may be the fastest way to reach new customers. You can target Facebook users by the words they’re using with friends (“spa,” “facial,” “baggy eyes”), by their age, their interests and more, combined with very precise geographic terms — within 1, 2, or 5 miles of your store address, or where you know your best customers live. Steer them to your website to book some services, or to your Facebook Page to collect monthly special coupons.
7. Lather, rinse, repeat — cha-ching.